This invention relates generally to a cassette loading device for a cassette recording apparatus and, more particularly, is directed to an improved cassette loading device for a cassette recording apparatus, which is especially suited for use as an automatic cassette changer in, for example, a telephone dictating machine.
There presently exist various types of cassette recording apparatus and cassette loading devices therefor. One such loading device includes a cylindrical cassette magazine having a plurality of radially directed slots, each adapted to contain a tape cassette, and also having narrow slits along the circumferential periphery of the magazine for receiving paper slips, each slip having information thereon concerning the recording of a tape cassette in the respective slot, such as information relating to the recording time, the person who made the recording, and the like. The cassette magazine is intermittently rotated such that the radially directed slots are successively disposed at a cassette loading position so that the cassette therein can be loaded into the recording apparatus.
Such devices typically include an arm or lever extending into the radially directed slot at the cassette loading position for engaging the cassette therein and loading the same into the recording apparatus. However, because the paper receiving slits are typically in radial alignment with the radially directed slots, the lever, when extending into the radially directed slot at the cassette loading position, also will engage any paper slip within the corresponding slit. Thus, if a printed paper slip for a previously recorded cassette has not been removed from the slit which rotates to the cassette loading position, the paper slip will also be fed by the lever to the tape recorder, causing various problems with the tape recording apparatus.